Mr Loughton tweeted: “This evening I have held my nose and voted for the Government’s deal with the Attorney General’s extra assurances with no enthusiasm but with a greater fear of the damage that prolonged uncertainty and chaos could cause but I fear with little chance of it going through.”

All three Brighton and Hove MPs, Labour’s Peter Kyle and Lloyd Russell-Moyle as well as the Green Party’s Caroline Lucas, voted against the deal.

Crawley’s Henry Smith was the only Conservative MP in Sussex not to back Mrs May.